1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to computer systems having multiple processors in general, and, in particular, to a method for activating processor cores within a computer system.
2. Description of Related Art
Today's computer servers often include multiple processors with each processor having multiple cores. If a customer needs more computing capacity from a computer server, the customer can simply buy (or lease) additional resources. Since those resources, such as processors, are already present within the computer server, the customer can activate the needed resources via a software tool after paying for the resources. One such service offered by International Business Machines Corporation is called the Capacity on Demand service. The Capacity on Demand service allows a user to activate processors and memory units on the user's computer server when the user's workload requires such additional resources. Those resources may be activated either for a specific time period, or permanently. After activation, those resources can be used seamlessly with the user's other resources that have already been activated previously.
Currently, the Capacity on Demand service simply activates processor cores randomly, as they become available within each processor. Thus, the server performance delivered to a user may not be the most optimal. Consequently it would be desirable to provide an improved method for activating processor cores within a computer system having multiple processors.